 Good morning. I'm Shannon Andres, a regional extension agent with the Alabama Cooperative Extension Systems 4-H program. This morning we're here to learn more about magical muscles and how bones and muscles contribute to a healthy lifestyle. Some structures are pretty simple like Stonehenge built about 2500 BC. Other structures are complex like the Egyptian pyramids. Everyone recognizes the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France. It's a pretty complex structure, wouldn't you agree? Your body is a structure too, so there are some similarities between buildings and the human body. A structural component in this case, a girder, is held together at a joint that builders call a gusset. When put together, well, a healthy structure works and stands the test of time. And one of the most complex structures is your own body, the human skeleton. It's a unique structure, but unlike the previous ones, it's engineered to be able to move. So it's a movable structure. Muscles are attached to bones at different joints in the body. Notice the similarities. The human body has the same structural component as a building. The bone is like the girder and it's held together at the joint by a flexible gusset called a tendon. Muscles then move these joints to allow us to walk, run, jump, sit and play. And it's important to maintain healthy bones and muscles by eating nutritious food, getting plenty of rest, and of course, plenty of exercise. Can you build your own healthy structure now that we've described what goes into making one? It can be a shape like a square or a pyramid or you can go all out and make a tower. If you build a tower, be sure you measure it at its tallest point and take pictures along the way. The supplies should be readily available around your house. Just be creative. The structural component examples would be soda straws, coffee stirrers, spaghetti, toothpicks, pencils or even twigs. And examples for your joints could be chenille pipe cleaners, play-doh, pencil erasers, marshmallows, gummy candy or homemade salt dough. As you build, think about the structural component and the joint. What happens if your structural component is weak? What happens if your joint fails? And how does this relate to the human body? Don't forget to make photos of your project and upload them in the comment section.